dissipations. If Doltimore's
heart was disappointed, his vanity was pleased at the admiration
Caroline excited; and he himself was of an age and temper to share in
the pursuits and amusements of his wife. Into these gayeties, new to
their fascination, dazzled by their splendour, the young Evelyn entered
with her hostess; and ever by her side was the unequalled form of
Legard. Each of them in the bloom of youth, each of them at once formed
to please, and to be pleased by that fair Armida which we call the
World, there was, necessarily, a certain congeniality in their views and
sentiments, their occupations and their objects; nor was there, in all
that brilliant city, one more calculated to captivate the eye and
fancy than George Legard. But still, to a certain degree diffident and
fearful, Legard never yet spoke of love; nor did their intimacy at this
time ripen to that point in which Evelyn could have asked herself if
there were danger in the society of Legard, or serious meaning in his
obvious admiration. Whether that melancholy, to which Lady Vargrave had
alluded in her correspondence with Lumley, were occasioned by thoughts
connected with Maltravers, or unacknowledged recollections of Legard, it
remains for the acute reader himself to ascertain.

The Doltimores had been about three weeks in Paris; and for a fortnight
of that time Legard had been their constant guest, and half the inmate
of their hotel, when, on that night which has been commemorated in our
last book, Maltravers suddenly once more beheld the face of Evelyn, and
in the same hour learned that she was free. He quitted Valerie's box;
with a burning pulse and a beating heart, joy and surprise and hope
sparkling in his eyes and brightening his whole aspect, he hastened to
Evelyn's side.

It was at this time Legard, who sat behind Miss Cameron, unconscious of
the approach of a rival, happened by one of those chances which occur in
conversation to mention the name of Maltravers. He asked Evelyn if she
had yet met him.

"What! is he, then, in Paris?" asked Evelyn, quickly. "I heard, indeed,"
she continued, "that he left Burleigh for Paris, but imagined he had
gone on to Italy."

"No, he is still here; but he goes, I believe, little into the society
Lady Doltimore chiefly visits. Is he one of your favourites, Miss
Cameron?"

There was a slight increase of colour in Evelyn's beautiful cheek, as
she answered,--

"Is it possible not to admire and be intere